India is located between two major illicit opium producing centres in Asia - the Golden Crescent comprising Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran and the Golden Triangle comprising Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Laos.[1] Because of such geographical location, India experiences large amount of drug trafficking through the borders.[2] India is the world's largest producer of licit opium.[3] But opium is diverted to illicit international drug markets.[3] India is a transshipment point for heroin from Southwest Asian countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan and from Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand.[4] Heroin is smuggled from Pakistan and Burma, with some quantities transshipped through Nepal.[4] Most heroin shipped from India are destined for Europe.[4] There have been reports of heroin smuggled from Mumbai to Nigeria for further export.[4] In Maharashtra, Mumbai is an important centre for distribution of drug.[5] The most commonly used drug in Mumbai is Indian heroin (called desi mal by the local population).[5] Both public transportation (road and rail transportation) and private transportation are used for this drug trade.[5]

According to a joint report published by Oxfam, Amnesty International and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) in 2006, there are around 40 million illegal small arms in India out of approximately 75 million in worldwide circulation.[7] Majority of the illegal small arms make its way into the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh.[7] In India, an used AK-47 costs $3,800 in black market.[8] Large amount of illegal small arms are manufactured in various illegal arms factories in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and sold on the black market for as little as $5.08.[7] Chinese pistols are in demand in the illegal small arms market in India because they are easily available and cheaper.[7] This trend poses a significant problem for the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh which are affected by Naxalism.[7] The porous Indo-Nepal border is an entry point for Chinese pistols, AK-47 and M-16 rifles into India as these arms are used by the Naxalites who have ties to Maoists in Nepal.[7]

Project Tiger, a wildlife conservation project, was initiated in 1972 and was launched by Indira Gandhi on April 1, 1973.[14] With 23 tiger reserves, Project Tiger claimed to have succeeded.[14] But according to critics like conservationist Billy Arjan Singh, temporary increases in tiger population were caused by immigration due to destruction of habitat in Nepal, not because of the widely acclaimed success of wildlife policy in India.[14]

Cases of spam, computer hacking, cyber stalking and email fraud are rampant in India.[15] The Information Technology Act 2000 was passed by the Parliament of India in May 2000, aiming to curb cyber crimes and provide a legal framework for e-commerce transactions.[16] However Pavan Duggal, lawyer of Supreme Court of India and cyber law expert, viewed "The IT Act, 2000, is primarily meant to be a legislation to promote e-commerce. It is not very effective in dealing with several emerging cyber crimes like cyber harassment, defamation, stalking and so on".[15] Although cyber crime cells have been set up in major cities, Duggal noted the problem is that most cases remain unreported due to a lack of awareness.[15] In 2001, India and United States had set up an India-US cyber security forum as part of a counter-terrorism dialogue.[17] In 2006, India and the US agreed to enhance cooperation between law enforcement agencies of the two countries in tackling cyber crimes as part of counter-terrorism efforts.[17] A joint US-India statement released in 2006 after talks between US PresidentGeorge W. Bush and Indian Prime MinisterManmohan Singh stressed that in view of the importance of cyber security and cyber forensic research, the two countries are also carrying out discussions on a draft protocol on cyber security.[17]

Despite state prohibitions against torture and custodial misconduct by the police, torture is widespread in police custody, which is a major reason behind deaths in custody.[20][21] The police often torture innocent people until a 'confession' is obtained to save influential and wealthy offenders.[22] G.P. Joshi, the programme coordinator of the Indian branch of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative in New Delhi comments that the main issue at hand concerning police violence is a lack of accountability of the police.[23]

In 2006, the Supreme Court of India in an judgment in the Prakash Singh vs. Union of India case, ordered central and state governments with seven directives to begin the process of police reform. The main objectives of this set of directives was twofold, providing tenure to and streamlining the appointment/transfer processes of policemen, and increasing the accountability of the police.[24]

In 2006, seven policemen were charge sheeted and eleven were convicted[25] for custodial misconduct.

Tourist locations and markets are visited by criminals looking to target foreigners. Westerners have become victims of robbery, rape and other violent attacks.[26]

Because foreigners have a purchasing power that is relatively large than the general population, they are often the preferred target for robbery and other serious crimes.[26]

In April1999, Swaraj Damree, a tourist from Mauritius was befriended by a group of Indians who later held him captive for 25 days. They robbed him of cash amounting to US$1,500, took his traveller's cheques, wrist watch, gold chain, bracelet, two bags and suitcase.[27] In 2000, two German trekkers were shot in Himachal Pradesh. A few weeks later, two Spanish tourists were killed by robbers in the same state.[28] Many foreign tourists are victim of violent crime in Kolkata.[29] In September2006, criminals robbed the wallet of a British woman in Kolkata.[29] The same month, a Japanese tourist was robbed on his way to Sudder Street.[29] In October2006, a foreigner was robbed during the day on Park Street.[29]

Petty crime, such as pickpocketing, bag snatching etc. is widespread in India. Stealing of valuables from foreigners' luggage on trains and buses is common. Lone travelers become easy victims of pickpockets and purse snatchers, who usually work in crowded areas.[30]

In India, stealing of passport of foreigners from luggage on trains and buses is widespread.[31] Scams involving export of jewels occur in India, which target foreign citizens. Theft of U.S. passports is very common, especially in major tourist areas.[26][32]

Many scams are perpetrated against foreign travelers, especially in Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan.[26] Scams usually target younger foreign tourists and suggest them that money can be made by privately transporting gems or gold or by taking delivery abroad of expensive carpets avoiding customs duties.[26]

Such incidents pull the traveler over the course of several days and begin with a new scam artist who offers to show the foreign traveler the sights. They also offer cheap lodgings and meals to foreign travellers so that they can place the traveler in the physical custody of the scam artist and can leave the foreigner with threats and physical coercion. In the due process, the foreigner lose his passport.[26]

There are also taxi scams present in India where a foreign traveler, who is not aware of the locations around Indian airports, is taken for a ride round the whole airport and charged for full-fare taxi ride while the terminal is only few hundred yards away.[30] Overseas Security Advisory Council in a report mentioned the process about how to avoid taxi-scam.[30]

A report published by the National Crime Records Bureau compared crime rate from 1953 to 2006. The report noted burglary has been declined over a period of 53 years by 38% (from 1,47,379 in 1953 to 91,666 in 2006), whereas murder has increased by 231% (from 9,803 in 1953 to 32,481 in 2006).[41]Kidnapping has increased by 356% (from 5,261 in 1953 to 23,991 in 2006), robbery by 120% (from 8,407 in 1953 to 18,456 in 2006) and riots by 176% (from 20,529 in 1953 to 56,641 in 2006).[41]

In 2006, 51,02,460 cognizable crimes were committed including 18,78,293 Indian Penal Code (IPC) crimes and 32,24,167 Special & Local Laws (SLL) crimes, with an increase of 1.5% over 2005 (50,26,337).[25] IPC crime rate in 2006 was 167.7 compared to 165.3 in 2005 showing an increase of 1.5% in 2006 over 2005.[25] SLL crime rate in 2006 was 287.9 compared to 290.5 in 2005 showing an decline of 0.9% in 2006 over 2005.[25]

Location has a significant impact on crime in India. In 2006, the highest crime rate was reported in Pondicherry (447.7%) for crimes under Indian Penal Code which is 2.7 times the national crime rate of 167.7%.[25]Kerala reported the highest crime rate at 312.5% among states.[25]

Kolkata (71.0%) and Madurai (206.2%) were the only two mega cities which reported less crime rate than their domain states West Bengal (79.0%) and Tamil Nadu (227.6%).[25]Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore have accounted for 16.2%, 9.5% and 8.1% respectively of the total IPC crimes reported from 35 mega cities.[25]Indore reported the highest crime rate (769.1%) among the mega cities in India followed by Bhopal (719.5%) and Jaipur (597.1%).[25]

Jammu and Kashmir (33.7%), Manipur (33.0%), Assam (30.4%) and Daman and Diu and Pondicherry (29.4%) reported higher violent crime rate compared to 18.4% at national level.[25]Uttar Pradesh reported the highest incidence of violent crimes accounting for 12.1% of total violent crimes in India (24,851 out of 2,05,656) followed by Bihar with 11.8% (24,271 out of 2,05,6556).[25] Among 35 mega cities, Delhi reported 31.2% (533 out of 1,706) of total rape cases.[25]Madhya Pradesh has reported the highest number of rape cases (2,900) accounting for 15.0% of total such cases reported in the country.[25] Uttar Pradesh reported 16.9% (5,480 out of 32,481) of total murder cases in the country and 18.4% (4,997 out of 27,230) total attempt to murder cases.[25]